Tell-tale bullet wound could mean 'innocent man was jailed' for White House Farm murders

For over 40 years, Jeremy Bamber has been languishing in HM Prison Wakefield – the so-called “Monster Mansion” that houses some of the UK’s most notorious criminals. He was jailed in October 1986 after being convicted of an horrific family massacre in which his adoptive parents, his sister and her two sons were shot dead in an Essex farmhouse. However, new evidence suggests the real culprit died on that fateful night in August 1985, meaning Bamber could be innocent.

A new documentary, Jeremy Bamber: Proof of Innocence - The Missing Phone Call which airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5 re-examines some of the evidence that has persuaded campaigners that Bamber did not, after all, commit the crimes for which he was convicted. In particular, the programme focuses on new ballistic tests that directly contradict the findings of the original police inquiry. Three days after Nevill and June Bamber, along with their daughter Sheila Caffell, and Sheila's six-year-old twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas, were found dead in White House Farm, a damning piece of evidence was discovered at the crime scene.

A silencer found in the house’s gun cupboard was determined to be contaminated with blood that could have come from Sheila. Firearms expert, Malcolm Fletcher, said that the blood was back-spatter from a close-range shooting. This discovery contradicted Bamber's account that Sheila had “gone berserk” with a rifle on the night of the killings, before going on to shoot herself.

It would have been impossible for Sheila to have reached the trigger on the gun in order to shoot herself, given the additional length of the silencer. It also would seem highly improbable for her to have committed the murders, then put the silencer away before then turning the rifle on herself. However, a macabre new test featured in the documentary casts doubt on the prosecution’s findings.

All of the victims in the White House Farm killings were shot multiple times. Even Sheila, who, according to Bamber’s testimony, had shot herself after killing her parents and her children, had been shot twice. But all of the bullet wounds were clean, round holes.

Using a piece of pig skin – the closest animal equivalent to human skin, a ballistics expert conducted a test of the wound profile produced with, and without, the silencer. Using the same make and model as the weapon used in the killings, the expert fired the kind of ammunition at short range into the test sample.

Bullets fired with the silencer fitted to the gun produced a distinctively ragged hole. By contrast, bullets fired without it produced exactly the same kind of neat, round wound seen on all of the victims.

Given that the silencer is the key piece of evidence that conflicts with Bamber’s account, the ballistic test alone provides a persuasive argument for the case to be reviewed.

Questions have also been asked about how the silencer was found. It was discovered in the house by a relative of Bamber’s, David Boutflour. Another relative had, strangely, written notes about a silencer being found before Boutflour’s discovery. Questions have been raised about the chain of evidence, with allegations that the crime scene was ineptly handled by Essex police.

Campaigners have claimed that there may have been been more than one silencer recovered from the scene, with forensic experts’ descriptions of the item they tested differing on one or two significant details.

So many years on, determining exactly what happened on that August night may now no longer be possible. But Jeremy Bamber remains in Monster Mansion, having suffered more than one potentially-deadly assault from other inmates, and consistently maintaining his innocence and pleading to be allowed to appeal his whole-life sentence.

Bamber’s legal team plans to submit a report demanding that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) review their original objection and refer the case.

Responding to the allegations, Essex Police state that several appeals and reviews have concluded Bamber is guilty, while the CCRC says they are working to consider additional matters raised in his application.

Jeremy Bamber: Proof of Innocence - The Missing Phone Call airs tonight on Channel 5 at 9pm